I know that I have been a little negligent in posting, but I am going to get caught up this weekend!  Last weekend was a busy one, starting with our celebration of Riley’s 13th birthday on Friday, an event at our homeschool COOP on Saturday, and then Mothers Day on Sunday!

Kelly again outdid herself by making rainbow cupcakes for Riley on her birthday.  Her birthday was actually Saturday, but because of plans we already had, we celebrated on Friday.

As we understand that Riley doesn’t really enjoy going out for dinner, we decided to get some wings and eat at home.  We also realize that Riley doesn’t really enjoy getting presents either, but we went ahead and decided to get her six.   It was a rather time consuming and painful ordeal to get her to even attempt to open her presents and I had to agree to minimize my picture taking so that I didn’t add in too much additional stress!

Riley loves Nick, but even he had difficulty getting her to participate much in the opening process.

In the end, we got everything opened and I believe that she enjoyed her gifts.  Some of them were even ones that she secretly told the other girls she wanted, but when it came down to having all the attention placed upon her it was a little too much.

If presents were not bad enough, then we had to get her to blow out the candle on her cupcakes.

That required assistance from Brittany and, in the end, was completed so quickly that I was barely able to snap a picture!

She, and we, survived and had a very nice evening!

The following night we had an end-of-year performance at our homeschool COOP.  It was an opportunity for some of the kids to show what they had learned over the last several months.  The little ones enjoyed playing some musical selections on their recorders for us, but I just could not get a great shot of Caleb without the music stand!

Kelly did take a picture of Caleb playing for her at the dinner table the other night, so I will include that here!

Later, Brittany did a really nice job with a dance routine/musical skit with several other girls within the group.

She really is turning into a beautiful young lady.

Sunday brought around Mothers Day, and if anyone should be celebrated, it would be Kelly!  We started the day with a round of presents before church, which included hugs for Ali…

… and presents wrapped up in love in both English and Mandarin.

It wouldn’t be complete without a picture of mom with all her kids.  All her kids except Zachary, that is.

And a picture of the two of us together.

Zach is in Tanzania on a missions trip with the Man Team.  They are doing construction projects for different groups, including a pastor.  He was supposed to be working on a road project, but apparently someone was killed by a tiger, so that was put on hold!  He will be gone until June and we miss not seeing him much this summer.

After church, we came home and relaxed for awhile and then went to Kelly’s sister’s house for a pool party!  It was the first time that the new girls had 1) ever been in a bathing suit in public and 2) ever been in a swimming pool!  They began by sitting on the side of the pool just trying to get comfortable with the entire prospect.

Jessie was the most brave by actually venturing into the pool first.

Ultimately, Leah also came in and enjoyed spending some quality time with Ali!

And she even allowed me to float her around in a life jacket.

In the end, Jessie was the most brave and ventured furthest in, most of the time with me.

Riley told Kelly later that NEXT time she will certainly get in.  We will have to see if that happens.

It was a really nice weekend and we had a lot of fun together as a family.  Jessie, Riley, and Leah continue to enjoy being a part of this family and bonding with their sisters and brothers.  Here is a shot of four of the girls enjoying time together on the swing.

That is pretty sweet!

For those of you who have not heard, we are going back to adopt another precious little girl next year.  We will be calling her Ashley and we look forward to see how she blossoms as quickly as all the other kids have when surrounded by the love and affection of a large family.

At some point I will change this blog into one about her?  Not sure exactly how I am going to do that yet.  I certainly don’t want people to follow two blogs!  Stay tuned.

Tomorrow I will post another blog!  Two in one weekend!  How lucky are you?

Cameron